On the dusty trail

In his new exhibition, visual artist M Pravat tries to catch dust, which never settles, but travels across terrains despite the lockdown

When artist M Pravat’s 8-foot-tall metal-framed concrete panels arrived at Pune’s Vida Heydari Contemporary in the beginning of March, no one expected his works, Movement in Stillness, to reside there for three months. But, the exhibition has now been extended till May end, owing to the lockdown.

The twin works, made of fired bricks, have created quite a sensation in the gallery’s Koregaon Park neighbourhood. Bystanders gathered to see the 25 off-loaders lugging the 1,000 kg frames. Visual art practitioners and patrons in other cities also became privy to the moment, after a hoisting video floated in the online space.  The cut-marked bricks have reminded viewers of the basic raw material in our surrounding environment. 

Celestial Bodies

While the gigantic frames resemble an excavation site from an aerial angle, they also evoke associations with a brick-laying Lego. As Mumbai-based curator Jesal Thacker puts it, Pravat’s bricks are not just awe-evoking building material, but they are open-to-interpretation poetic devices. 

“The artist sees disorder in the cities and townships; he senses the dust rising from a hectic construction spree.  But, he doesn’t just showcase the disorder, Pravat 
[also] creates a semblance of an order by juxtaposing materials and narratives.”